The teaser features a group of scientists who seem to be recovering data from the dismembered arm of Raiden. Raiden is seen dipping in and out of consciousness as a result and experiences a number of flashbacks of his childhood.

As Metal Gear fans might be familiar with, Raiden was a child soldier under Solidus during the Liberian Civil War which took place in the late 1980s. The teaser seems to hint at the return of Solidus as his voice, that of John Cygan, can be heard in the trailer if you listen attentively.

This preview session was recorded by 4Gamer and is not necessarily indicative of the final, localised version, but at least we’re starting to get some insight into what Grasshopper Manufacture is up to with the hack-and-slasher.

Activision has officially announced Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 for a November 13 worldwide release. The game’s first video shows a future envisioned in 2025.It’s official: Treyarch’s next pop at the Call of Duty cherry is Black Ops 2. Activision has released the first trailer for the shooter ahead of a previously expected reveal during the NBA Playoffs.

The video confirms a 2025 setting, featuring glimpses of Los Angeles under attack. A Middle Eastern setting, robots and even horses are spotted in the trailer.

Sgt Frank Woods, the protagonist of the original Black Ops, also appears in the video.

Before the release of the trailer, the official website jumped the gun on the announcement.

The publisher has gone live with an official website for the game.

It’ll release on November 13.The debut of the trailer came ahead of what was expected to be an official reveal during the NBA Playoffs tonight in the US.

The identity of the game began leaking in earnest last weekend.

This image appears to confirm at least partof the game is set in LA.Assets from the game’s website were earlier spotted online before the website went live in the afternoon, showing the game’s box-art, logo and the release date of November 13 (thanks, Robotix).

A video last week from FPSRussia indicated the next CoD would be set in a futuristic timeline by at least 10-15 years. There’s a space for the video in the bottom corner of the official site. The original Black Ops took place within the 60s and 70s during the Vietnam War and the Cold War.

The description from the trailer confirms this near-future setting :

“Pushing the boundaries of what fans have come to expect from the record-setting entertainment franchise, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 propels players into a near future, 21st Century Cold War, where technology and weapons have converged to create a new generation of warfare. Pre-order today.”

The surprise inclusion of a multiplayer mode in God of War: Ascension has some analysts cheering, and others a bit stumped.Speaking to GamesIndustry, EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich seemed confident in Sony’s decision to go multiplayer.

“EEDAR has run numerous studies on the impact on multiplayer on game sales. We have found that when executed properly, multiplayer does have a positive impact on initial and long-term sales,” he said.

The analyst noted it’s risky for developers “to simply tack on a multiplayer component thinking it will be the silver bullet solution to long-term sales and a reduction in used sales”, but seemed pretty sure that’s not the case this time.

We are confident that the Santa Monica Studio recognizes the common pitfalls. As a studio with a great pedigree, I am sure any multiplayer component will be additive to the God of War experience and not simply a tacked on feature,” he added.

If you like the Persona games you’re probably some plodding RPG nerd who can’t handle difficult manoeuvres like pressing two keys at once, let alone pull off combos and counters. I’m just joshing with you! But Atlus isn’t.Don’t let the vapid tips in the early moments fool you; the trailer quickly begins diving into what makes the core mechanics of Persona 4 Arena so interesting. Maybe it won’t replace UMvC3 as your favourite tournament game, but the basic Arc System Works (Guilty Gear, BlazBlue) DNA seems to be there, which should make it well worth a look. Or seven. Persona 4 Arena arrives on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in the US in August.

Sony has detailed the US pre-order incentives it previously announced for Starhawk, which it said contains over $20 worth of extra goodies through GameStop. You already know if you drop some money down you’ll receive the following: Maw of Despair Outcast Co-op Map and Shade Warrior Multiplayer Skin, Echo Scrapyard Rifter Pack with Scrapyard Homeworld and Huxley Ardin MP Skin; Starhawk Concept Art PS3 Theme; the game soundtrack and a copy of the original Warhawk released on PSone through PSN. However, it appears you will now also receive one free month of PS Plus. Even better news, right?

Head on over to the US PS Blog to have your first look at the extra content. Don’t forget, if you were a beta tester, you will also be handed a couple extra gifts for your testing time. Game hits the US on May 8 and Europe on May 9.

Some lovely new Max Payne 3 shots have landed, courtesy of AGB. The game is out week after next, and surely you are excited for it. We are at least. If you missed it yesterday, here’s the DLC content schedule for the game, and tomorrow a new multiplayer trailer will land as well.

As promised yesterday, Rockstar has released a new multiplayer trailer for Max Payne 3. The video is the second in a special, two-part series unveiling the game’s multiplayer and atkes a deeper look into Bullet Time online, persistent Multiplayer Crews, powerful Burst abilities and more.

Nielsen Media has told GI International the NM Incite tracking buzz around the Call of Duty since the Black Ops 2 reveal has increased 400% due to its mention on social media sites and over 160 million blogs and message boards.As of April 30, there were 4,911 messages on various boards regarding the game, and after the trailer aired and more details were revealed on May 2, the number of messages reached 21,454.

“Historically, buzz has been at its highest around launch time for Call of Duty, generating up to 69,942 messages on a single day,” NM Incite analyst Mickey Campione said.

As far as pre-launch buzz goes, today’s buzz total of 21,454 is second highest, only to May 31, 2011′s 21,728 messages. The buzz on [that day] came after Activision announced their Call of Duty: Elite online community.

Xbox 360 was the platform leading the discussions, unsurprisingly, but PS3 wasn’t far behind which suggests the console’s mindshare is growing, according to Nielsen.

Subject: BBFC lists Dead Island: Game of the Year Edition for June 30 release Fri May 04, 2012 12:55 pm

The British Board of Film Classification has rated Dead Island: Game of the Year Edition, which the site states will be made available on June 30. The classification fails to note whether the existing DLC will be included, but it’s safe to assume it will following the footsteps of previous releases and include all the available goodies. Deep Silver has yet to announce a GOTY edition of the title, but we’ll ask about it.

Sony has released a new video for the Side-Quest Studio PSN-exclusive Rainbow Moon. The strategy-RPG was originally slated to release last year, but the game’s publisher, eastasiasoft, announced a delay into Q1 2012. Upon release, the game will contain 30 hours of gameplay which can be extended to 100 hours with side-questing taken into consideration. It contains six playable characters, 20 dungeons, over 100 skills, and fully customizable weapons and armour.

Ok this is before he became a God so why not call it The Legend Of Kratos

That's the exact same thing I was thinking, the tag line for the game is "before he was a god he was a man", so how does god equate into the game. In fact I'm curious to see what the combat is like, because if it's his move set from any og the previous games, then it's stupid to say "he was a man". The game has Multiplayer? that's a surprise, it looks ok, although it's no way of knowing for sure, until actually playing it.

It definitely should be called Legend Of Kratos or The Legend Of Kratos, SSM is incredibly blind sighted by the franchise to not realize this. GOW fans will be playing this, expecting to play with "the power of a god". They should have hired you for the title of the game! lol I think even Zeus himself would agree (if he were still alive that is)

lol thanks. I feel they should be creative with titles in naming games at least. How many GodOfWar games are out there & they can't see they're running the name into the ground. Developers are playing it safe when it comes to creativity & a naming of a title even related to something close. They feel the GodOfWar name is a guarantee sale & THEN later on they'll complain that gamers frown on anything new & creative. I say how do you know if your not willing to test the waters first. Yes it's possible new ideas won't be welcomed but if your afraid of negative feedback then your in the wrong business. You want to keep a well known series like GodOfWar going then keep it fresh, multiplayer is one way but cheap. You want gamers to feel this is mild-mannered Kratos then the title of the game should reflect it more.

Subject: Nomura Asks Fans for Even More Patience for New Final Fantasy Versus XIII Details Fri May 04, 2012 10:03 pm

I think the worst thing about the huge wait fans are bearing for Final Fantasy Versus XIII is the lack of overall information. I mean, if you’re going to announce a game 6+ years before it even has a release date, then at the very least we should be getting updates on a regular bases. But noooo, Square Enix has to be unbelievably quiet about the game, showing nothing but a couple of CG trailers and a droplet of game-play (shown at a freaking private event, the nerve).

In a recent interview about Kingdom Hearts 3D, designer Tetsuya Nomura was accosted once again about new details on the title. And once again, Nomura-san asked that fans be very patient in waiting for new information. He also says that the team is working to bring us new details “as quickly as possible”. If this wait is teaching us anything, it’s that we should just kind of forget about the game until it hits store shelves. This is just far too stressful.

A four minute gameplay clip for the RPG Game of Thrones is posted below. It’s a preview from the German site GameStar. Hopefully, you sprechen Deutsch, otherwise, you won’t understand a thing. Regardless, it will give you an idea of how the game plays and the look of things. It’s out on May 15 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but Dead Space could have turned out to be a very different type of game if it weren’t for last-minute game-wide changes originating from protagonist Isaac Clarke’s speed of movement.

Speaking to BeefJack, former Visceral art man on the game, Ian Milham, said pre-launch focus testers found the character to be just too slow, and frustratingly so.

“Six months before Dead Space came out, we did some focus testing and found out the main character was just too slow,” he said. “We thought it would make the game more intense but people just were frustrated.”